The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-25
THE UNION SERVICE.
Rev. A. M. Wynn's Sermon at Trinity
Methodist Church.

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Methodist Church.
At the union services which were held at
Trinity church there were a number of
clergymen present besides DR.. Christian, the
pastor. There were many members from
the various congregations which bad been
invited to attend, and the church was well
filed before the services began. The SER
mon was preached by Rev. DR.. Wynn, of
the Wesley Monumental church. His text
was from Exodus xxxiii., 10; Romans H., 4,
and Ezekiel Xxx, 43.
And the Lord said, will make all my good
ness pass before thee and / will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee.
Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness
and forbearance and long sufering not know
ing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance.
And we snail know that l am the Lord when
have wrought with you for my names sake,
not according to your wicked ways, nor accord
ing to your corrupt doings, we house of Israel,
saith the Lord God.
DR.. Wynn said: This is a day of thanks
giving. We ought not, must not lose sight
of that. We are here to give thanks to God,
generally; but more specifically for certain
well understood, though unnumbered bless
lngs and favors received directly from our
bountiful and gracious Lord. We ought to
praise God for giving us a Chief Magistrate
WIZ DuDuCly anu O1uCltlly calls on us as a
people to thus honor God. We are called to
a grateful recognition and humble acknowl-
edgement of the goodness and mercy of God.
NOW, if we can and will but reVerently
and piously do this, the day will be one of
the brightest and happiest of our lives
We are not here then for fine sermonizing,
but we are here to honor God-to worship,
pray to and praise Him-and remember His
goodness and mercy to us as a nation, as
nc itnHi 10 of C,1,.
sins and seek his forgiveness.
And now, why has God thus favored
our country and nation, our families and
ourselveSs Is it for our sakes or on account
of our merit! No. ''Not for your sakes do
l do this, saith the Lord God; be it known
unto you; be ashamed and COMPOUNDED for
your own ways, oh, house of Israel" But,
according to my text he 'hath wrought
with us for his own names sake, not ac
cording to our wicked ways nor according
to our corrupt doings."
Then it is for His own names sake that He
has so graciously shown His goodness and
| mercy to us this year. But what does this
mean. The name of God in the Bible very
frequently signifies his nature and perfec-
lions. Thus when He proclaimed the name
| of the Lord in the hearing of Moses, the
| proclamation contained His nature and per
| fections. For His own names sake, His
| goodness, benevolence and grace come to
| his creatures. He does good because it is His
nature to do good. His grace isoverfowing,
| and can bear no restraint where
| the object is pointed out by Divine
wisdom. 1t requires God of
| infinite projections to create world out of
nothing; this is universally granted. But
| it is not often thought of, though equally
| true, that it also requires God of infinite
| projections to bear with, so long, so
guilty a world as ours 1t is the pa
| tience and long suffering of God only that
is capable of this The grace of the most
| benevolent of mortals, and even of angels,
is not equal to this exploit of mercy
Let us therefore reflect that since God has
| made all His goodness pass before us, not for
our merit, for His own names and honor's
sake, ought we not in justice and gratitude to
| ascribe all to HIml TO honor, worship and
| love Him constantly! mot for your own
sakes do / this, saith the Lord, be it known
| unto you; be ashamed and COMPOUNDED for
| your own ways" Therefore mot unto us,
| not unto us, but to Thy NAME o Lord, be
| the glory In our intercessiops for our
| country and people, we should draw our prin-
| cipal argument from the glory of His name
and honor in the earth. We should not
flatter ourselves that God is so bound by His
| honor and name to protect and continue to
| bless us that He can never cast us off and
that we are not in any danger
But IN what manner ought our Thanks
| giving days to be observeds How view our
mercies and blessings from God and how
improve them to the honor of God We
may lawfully indulge ourselves in all
natural and decent expressions of joy We
may keep this day as the Jews did the DAYS
of Purim, as day of gladness and joy, of
| feasting and sending portions one
to another, aud gifts to the poor
and needy. But let us not indulge
ourselves in those riotous excuses and ex-
travagances by which days of thanksgiving
are profaned by many under pretense of
solemnizing them.
Let us talk over the goodness of God to
our nation and people. Let our hearts and
voices concur in His praise. Praise Him
| for all our good providences as their author.
Talk to each other of His goodness and
mercy to us as a city, as families and as in
dividuals Trace His hand in guiding us in
all our ways, and ascribe to Him before our
| households all the authorship and honor of
| all our blessings